Travel shares were among those performing positively on Monday as investors appeared to favour companies set to benefit from the easing of Covid-19 restrictions.
The performance came after the latest Business Trends report from advisory firm BDO LLP on Monday morning showed a jump in confidence among the UK’s services sector on the back of the rollout of vaccines.
Carnival shares closed up 8.20% at 1,656.50 against a previous close of 1,531.00, while Tui rose 5.66% to finish on 436.70.
Wizz Air also performed strongly, closing up 7.09% at 5,350.00, while online travel agency On The Beach was up 4.65% at 461.00.
Other travel shares include easyJet, which closed up 3.76% at 1,012.50, British Airways owner IAG, which closed up 2.99% at 210.00, and Jet2, which rose 3.02% at 1,397.00.
The FTSE all share closed the day up 1.28% as other European markets also performed strongly.
In addition to BDO’s Services Optimism Index, which rose to 94.13 in February from 86.60 in January, polling firm YouGov also reported a rise in consumer confidence on Monday.
The company said its consumer confidence score increased by two points to 105.4, an improvement based on hopes for business activity, house prices and household finances in the next year.
Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey also told the Resolution Foundation think-tank there was “light at the end of the tunnel” but said working and lifestyle patterns were likely to have been changed permanently by the crisis.
He said: “There are reasons to believe that so-called long-term scarring damage to the economy will be lower than in past recessions.
“If I had to summarise the diagnosis, it’s positive but with large doses of cautionary realism.”